Warne and Barker sign three-year deals with Millers...
Rotherham United are delighted to announce that Paul Warne and Richie Barker have signed new three year deals with the club.
Following the club’s Play-off Final success at Wembley last weekend, the Millers moved to secure the long-term futures of the first team boss and his assistant, with the pair putting pen-to-paper on renewed terms on Friday afternoon.
Warne was officially appointed to the Millers hotseat in April 2017, having previously taken charge on an interim basis with former teammate Barker rejoining the club from Charlton Athletic a month later. The pair guided the club to a fourth-placed finish in League One in their first season in charge before earning promotion at Wembley through the Play-offs.
Speaking upon signing their new contracts with Rotherham United, Warne and Barker expressed their delight at pledging their futures to the club.
“We're delighted to have committed for a further three years at the end of what has been a very eventful and successful season,” the duo explained.
“We're very grateful to the club for the showing their faith in us with this new deal and we're already looking forward to the challenge ahead.”
Warne was quick to express his gratitude to Chairman Tony Stewart for his commitment to the work undertaken by everyone on the first team staff, before continuing to explain that the progressive development of the club remains high on his priority list.
“All of the staff are equally pleased that we've got the assurance of the new contract because they're people that I have brought in and they've worked really hard for us, so it's pleasing for them too to know that we have the backing of the Chairman,” he told www.themillers.co.uk.
“When myself and Richie took over, we wanted to leave a legacy and leave the club in better condition than when we got it. There were funds available to spend on players last summer but the Chairman kindly accepted our suggestion to spend it on developing the training ground and that will help us again this year and will be an asset for the club going forward.
“Every decision we make, whether it be concerning recruitment or the staff and players, we're always respectful of the budget and we try not to waste a penny. We always try and invest to the benefit of the club and we fully endorse the lads and all the hard work both on the pitch and in the community.
“We'll keep trying to sign good people and good footballers and I think with that team ethic we've seen this season how crucial their allegiance to this club is. It's not about the 'me' it's about the 'we' and that's what we want here at Rotherham United.”
Barker echoed the sentiments of the first team boss, whilst adding that the hard work continues despite the season finishing just days ago as the club look ahead to 2018/19.
“I think if you'd have told me that we'd be promoted from League One at Wembley this time last season then I wouldn't have believed it, but we were always striving to achieve that,” he explained.
“Initially our success was about making the football club better and in the short-term that's resulted in a promotion and a really enjoyable day at Wembley. We're really grateful to the Chairman for the loyalty that he has shown the pair of us by giving us a new deal off the back of this season.
“There's a real positive to take from being promoted in the way that we were but I think the negative of that is that the new season comes around very quickly. To be honest, we've been out of the country for 24 hours and we've spoken about nothing else other than the football club, so we're already putting plans in over here whilst trying to relax a little following the end of the season.”